


coffee & chokers

by orphan_account



Category: Total Drama (Cartoon)
Genre: F/F, bisexual Gwen!, coffee shop AU, girls lovin girls, lesbian zoey :)), of course it is
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-14
Updated: 2020-03-14
Packaged: 2021-02-28 20:35:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,294
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23143285
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: There's a cute girl who comes into Wawanakwa Cafe almost every day.Gwen had one goal: fucking talk to her.
Relationships: Gwen/Zoey (Total Drama)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 18





	coffee & chokers

A short, petite-figured goth sat in her beat-up Subaru, humming along to the later tracks of a My Chemical Romance CD. She tapped her fingers on the side of the steering wheel as she drove, looking for her usual parking spot. 

At last, she found it. The same spot as always. Tucked away near the back with a nice, shady oak tree over it, surrounded by white daisies. Her teal-painted lips slid into a smile as she effortlessly slid into the spot. 

She took the key out of the ignition, putting the attached lanyard around her neck. The short girl shoved her phone and her wallet into the back pocket of her black, high waisted jeans, pushing the door to her blue Subaru shut with a satisfying slam.

Tucking a piece of teal-dyed hair behind her ear, she began walking to the entrance of the mall. A cold wind blew right through the girl, causing goosebumps to cascade across her pale arms. She didn't mind the walk, but the cool Canadian climate could pose an issue sometimes.

At last, she entered the store, pulling the zipper of her blue and green jacket down with a relieved sigh, exploring her simple black undershirt. She walked past the aisles and aisles of stores, stopping only to wrinkle her nose at the  _ sheep  _ with their ponytails and pop music.

“Finally, ” The goth thought as she stood in front of the best store in the whole damn mall. The dark interior, the loud punk music, and the internet culture screaming in her face. This was the stuff she lived off of.

Hot Topic.

Her dark combat boots stomped their way to the stained carpet they were practically meant to tread on. She smirked again.

Immediately, she went over to the choker section. Her simple rubber one was becoming back in style again, and she would rather be dead than get caught trying to be a  _ sheep _ . 

She gazed at the various accessories on the shelves. Finally, she decided on a simple black-strap choker, moving her pale hand to grab it.

Instantly, her hand made contact with a fair-skinned one.

The goth girl looked up, moving her blue eyes to meet a pair of brown ones. 

A girl with red hair gazed back at her. A matching red crop top hugged her ample figure, matched with a light blue overall-styled dress. Black, sheer cat tights peeked from under her dress, tucking into black flats. She’d seen this girl before. She was one of those indie girls who only came to Hot Topic for the obscure merchandise. 

“Oh, I'm really sorry about that!” The Indie Chick apologized, her red lips forming an embarrassed smile. The Goth girl didn't know what to say. She pulled her eyes up for a moment before shooting them back down immediately. 

“It's, alright, ” she managed to get out, pulling her teal lips into a strained smile. She extended the black choker out to the other girl wordlessly.

“No, it would-it would look cuter on you! You can buy it.” She pushed the product back to the goth. The pale-skinned girl flushed red at the compliment.

“Aw, no, thanks, but-”

“I'll prove it.”

Before the teal-haired girl could protest, the red-haired girl attached the clasp to the goth's pale neck. Goosebumps cascaded down her neck as the indie girl touched it.

“There we go. Sorry to bother you, I better be off soon anyway, ” she said, turning to exit the store. 

The goth girl turned, a simple question lingering on her lips as she watched the indie girl leave.

But she swallowed those words quickly.

“C'mon, Gwen, you don't even know her name, ” she thought wistfully. She shook it off, fingering the choker anxiously. The goth girl unclasped it, picking up another choker and heading to the counter. She left the dark cave of a store, clutching her purchase carefully. She hadn't even noticed, but her heart was beating profusely at the exchange. Gwen moistened her lips anxiously. 

“Okay, time to clear my head.” Gwen thought, aimlessly walking towards the bathrooms. The entire exchange left her feeling strange. No one was in the female restroom, just as Gwen anticipated since the mall had just opened. Her fist uncurled, revealing the choker. 

Gwen brought it to her neck, putting it on. Her reflection stared back at her as she did so, judging every move. She glanced at the mirror, touching the choker. It looked better than her old rubber one. Gwen smiled faintly as she gazed at her choker. It was a small addition, but the memory of the red-haired girl sent chills up her spine. 

Gwen inhaled a deep breath, then exhaled. 

  
_ “Okay, Gwen, keep it down. There’s no need to get excited, it was just a friendly gesture. _ ”

She retucked her black shirt it, readjusted her hair, and composed herself. The goth girl preened her teal hair. Doing a final once-over in the mirror, Gwen left the bathroom, the redhead's compliment lingering in her thoughts. She began her steady walk to begin her daily shift.

Gwen rolled her eyes. Working at the Wawanakwa Cafe was never a high point of her day. The pay was mediocre, the work itself was bland, and the clientele was mediocre at best. She entered the small shop and entered the breakroom. She nodded a ‘hello’ to the mocha-skinned girl sitting at the tables.

“Sup, Courtney,” Gwen greeted, tossing off her jacket and throwing her apron over her outfit and pulling her teal hair into a ponytail. Courtney smiled back.

“Hey, just on a break, what’s up?” She responded casually.

“Not much, but-” Gwen paused. She almost shared her morning experience with the indie girl, but she didn’t want to make a big deal out of nothing. She swallowed her thoughts and rewired her sentence mentally.

“But, that’s just it. Not much. Nothing going on,” Gwen blurted out. A bright red color seeped through her face. Courtney pursed her lips, concealing a smirk. 

“What’s  _ really  _ going on,  _ Gwen _ ?” Courtney pressed. “Spill the tea!”    
  


“Well, I-it’s not a big deal, I mean, shift almost starts for the both of us, right?” Gwen stuttered out, leaving the room to start her barista shift. Courtney shook her head and left right after to serve her role as the cashier. 

The shift droned on and on as Gwen quickly made drinks on autopilot. A matcha frappe here, a simple black coffee there, and a few half-fat, no foam latte, steamed to 102 heat drinks. Her latina co-worker kept giving her knowing glances between orders. Gwen rolled her eyes or ignored every one of them. 

That is, until she came.

“Um, h-hey! Can I get, a, um, sorry- can I get a grande-sized, sugar-free, iced caramel latte? With soy milk, please,” the redheaded girl from before asked Courtney. Gwen’s eyes widened. The cashier turned to the barista knowingly and repeated her order.

“Oh, can I get a name?”   
  
“Zoey.”   
  
Gwen felt the air around her get lighter. She grabbed a grande cup and a red sharpie. She wrote it, those sweet, four letters, onto her cup with the neatest, prettiest penmanship she could. You better believe the goth girl was going to make the best damn drink ever. Gwen brewed the coffee, stirring in the soy milk and honey before pouring it into the cup with newfound gusto. 

“Order for  _ Zoey _ , do we have a Zoey here?” Gwen called out. Zoey looked up, putting her obscure android phone into her pocket before approaching the counter and grabbing her drink.

“Thank you!” Zoey paused, before smiling a bit more.

“And I like your choker.”

An hour of awkward worktime later, Gwen threw off her apron, grabbing her jacket. Courtney stopped her before she could leave. The two were still close, even after a mutual breakup.   
  
“Oh, you thought you were going home without telling me who that Zoey was? Oh, no no no.” Courtney continued, sitting down and pulling Gwen down into the opposite seat.

“Um, w-well, it’s just-she’s just a girl, Court’, it’s, whatever.” 

“Are you really sure this is where this story ends?”   
  


“Fine, maybe I like her.” Courtney smirked.

“Well, I’m going to go hang out with Heather. You better go get that girl.”

The cashier left the room, leaving Gwen to sit quietly in the breakroom. After a minute or so, the goth girl sucked in a breath and left the shop. Her Doc Martens hit the dirty mall floor as she exited the mall. She brought her pale hand to the handle of her Subaru, slumping into the driver’s seat.

Gwen sighed as she hit her head against the stirring wheel, groaning and messing up her teal-dyed hair. 

“What the fuck is going on?” She cried out before defeatedly slumping back into her seat. Gwen readjusted herself and grabbed an object from under her seat.

It was a medium-sized book, the edges damaged and worn from years of use. The corners were slightly singed by flames. A rusty lock kept her memories safe. She grabbed a key from her lanyard and unlocked it slowly.

This book was her magnum opus. The one thing that got her through life. Over 300 filled pages of her life, from middle school to now. She flipped past the pages, filled with messy writing in variously colored inks. Doodles and poems in progress flew through the pages. Tear-stained words. Movie tickets and fortune cookies taped haphazardly. Scribbled out writing. Gwen’s eyes skimmed past her entries.

They ranged from all different themes and storytelling methods. Some entrees were written happily in blue, neat handwriting. Other times, her words were caught in a whirlwind of emotions while writing, resulting in messy, smudged writing. A few pages were in comic form. Some were cryptically told through mementos from her day. 

Finally, Gwen reached a blank page, free with any previous thoughts. She smiled and fished around her car for a pen, her fingers settling on a red pen with a broken clicker. She started by scrawling the date onto the top of the page.

“ _ Dear Diary, _ ” She started, as she always did.

“ _ Yeah, it’s me. Who would’ve guessed? Anyway, life is kinda weird right now. _ ” She instinctively went to click the pen to think, but it was broken.

“ _ Well, there’s kind of this girl. Yeah, I know. I swore off dating after ‘the incident’. But, I mean, I like her, might as well act on it…? _ ” Gwen wrote, clumsily thinking of her words. She began to draw out her features.

Her warm, curving figure. That unmistakable cherry red hair cut into a small, cute pixie cut. Her glasses, her tights, her flats- everything about her felt so right. Her little overall dress. Gwen flushed red. Looking down at her messy doodle, she decided to continue writing it.

“ _ But, I barely know anything about her, just her name- Zoey. I really do like her, I think, but I don’t know anything about her. _ ” 

  
“ _ I’ll write back, I guess,”  _ Gwen finished, shutting her thick diary with a satisfying slam. She locked it, tossing her red pen into her backseat and throwing her diary back under the driver’s seat. 

“Whatever, this will probably be just another silly phase. I’ll get over whatever this crush is soon.” Gwen muttered under her breath.

~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~

“I am not over it.” Gwen said to herself. She turned over, glancing at her phone again. It was already a week later and Gwen still liked this Zoey girl.

The goth girl had seen Zoey a grand total of three times over the last week, and guess how many times she approached her? None, how surprising. 

After intensive stalking on Google, scanning through yearbooks, channeling her inner Sierra, she found her Instagram. She didn’t have too many followers, but her account was public. Her heart melted when she saw the rainbow in her bio. She didn’t have too many pictures of herself on it, but one photo did catch her eye.

It was a simple picture of the drink Gwen had made her, simply captioned “probably the best drink I’ve ever had, shoutout to the goth barista at Wawanakwa Cafe”. Gwen felt her heart soar unmeasurable as she read and reread that caption millions of times.

That wasn’t the only bit of information she gained from her Instagram. Through her account, Gwen found out she was a sophomore at Wawankawa High, so she was a year younger than Gwen. She was a cat person who loved crafting and sewed her own clothes. She hated mainstream media and the ‘popular’ crowd, something Gwen respected.

Gwen also found their interests aligned slightly. Zoey loved Paramore, though Gwen prefered the older eras and Zoey the newer. They also both liked theatre, especially musicals. She was especially happy when she noticed Zoey’s favorite Heather was Veronica, considering Gwen related to Veronica exponentially. 

Over the past week, even if they hadn’t actually talked, Gwen already felt closer to Zoey. 

“ _ Wait, no, I’m getting the ‘Sierra Mentality’. Creepily stalking someone’s insta isn’t the same as hanging out with someone. _ ” Gwen reprimanded herself mentally.

But fuck, she was smitten.   
  
…

Another day at work, another shift spent slaving over detailed orders. Gwen sighed, switching the song to an explicit My Chemical Romance song she wasn’t  _ technically  _ supposed to play.

“Can I get the usual?”   
  
Gwen looked up to see  _ her _ .   
  
She flushed red and nodded, beginning to make the drink she had memorized at this point. As she wrote ‘Zoey’ on the cup, she decided.

  
Fuck it.   
  
Gwen scribbled her digits, making the drink with dexterity and setting on the counter.   
  
“Coffee for Zoey?”    
  
“Oh, thanks!”   
  
It was satisfying watching Zoey’s face flush the same color as her hair as she read the message left on her cup.

**Author's Note:**

> Keep in mind, I wrote half of this in early 2018?? I just added a quick ending because I might as well publish it instead of locking it away in my Docs.
> 
> lol hope u enjoyed,


End file.
